Writing Your Way: The Great American Novel Track

by Julie Smith

WRITE FREE (formerly WRITING YOUR WAY) is all about finding your own best writing method, not a writing teacher’s idea of what’s right for you. It’s for the pre-published novelist who’s way past finding her inner writer and just wants some nuts-and-bolts advice that’ll help her through the plot knots and POV power struggles. Highlights include:

The definitive answer to the most popular question posed by pre-published authors:

How do I find an agent?
How to make that all-important first chapter sparkle. (The only one anybody reads if it doesn’t sparkle.)
Plotting without tears.
Laughs and giggles. The subject matter’s serious, but the touch is light.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction

181 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 2011

About the author

Author of 20 mystery novels and a YA paranormal adventure called BAD GIRL SCHOOL (formerly CURSEBUSTERS!). Nine of the mysteries are about a female New Orleans cop Skip Langdon, five about a San Francisco lawyer named Rebecca Schwartz,two about a struggling mystery writer named Paul Mcdonald (whose fate no one should suffer) and four teaming up Talba Wallis, a private eye with many names, a poetic license, and a smoking computer, with veteran P.I. Eddie Valentino.

In Bad GIRL SCHOOL, a psychic pink-haired teen-age burglar named Reeno gets recruited by a psychotic telepathic cat to pull a job that involves time travel to an ancient Mayan city. Hint:It HAS to be done before 2012!


Winner of the 1991 Edgar Allen Poe Award for best novel, that being NEW ORLEANS MOURNING.

Former reporter for the New Orleans TIMES-PICAYUNE and the San Francisco CHRONICLE.

Recently licensed private investigator, and thereon hangs a tale.

Resident of New Orleans, Louisiana

Reviews

[Michelle Stockard Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love books on writing. I have read my share of them too. I've read ones by Terry Brooks and Stephen King and others. So you'd think by now that I would have at least one novel under my belt. But I don't. Julie clarifies this issue in a nutshell...you have to write your way. Yes, you should pay attention to the advice and there are certain things the writer should not fudge on, like style and grammar. She recommends The Elements of Style by Strunk and White and there I couldn't agree with her more. I happen to have that book in my writing arsenal. A writer should also keep a good book on grammar handy. What she said that I really liked and agree with 100% is "write something that matters--if only to you." Great advice. Who wants to write something they don't care about? If the writer doesn't care, the reader certainly isn't going to. It doesn't have to be a big statement book, but the story should mean something, should touch the writer and, therefore, the reader. Authenticity and truth come in too. Don't skimp on the details. Do the research. The most important thing though...get it written. Set deadlines for yourself and this is one I like. Set a goal of five pages per day, five days a week. This works for Julie because she's a rule breaker so if she doesn't write on Monday, she can write Saturday to make it up. Or she can add pages on to other days. I think I like this approach better than so many words per day or hours even. Frankly, the word count thing makes me very nervous (I'm talking to you NaNoWriMo)!

Julie's core rules:

Start it--put one word after another.
Put your heart in it.
Part with it--get it written.

Simple and straight forward. I like it. In subsequent chapters, she discusses voice, plot, characters, and all the nuts and bolts when it comes to writing a novel, but she does it in a fresh way. She doesn't bog it all down with pages and pages of explanations. That's one beef I have with writing books. They are way too long. Hence why there are so many on my shelves that remain unread. Julie's 121 page dynamo is the perfect book on writing. This is a book that will stay in my eReader and I will be using it as I continue with the novel I started during NaNoWriMo and did not finish. I will finish it. Five pages a day, five days a week and I will write it my way. Thank you, Julie.

[Ev · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many books on writing are on my shelves and in my kept Kindle reads. Ms. Smith's is one of the better ones. I decided to invest and read this one as I enjoy her cozy mysteries a lot. I must say I learned a lot from her advise and commentary. (I read this book between Oct.1 and Oct.5, 2017).